Hi, hope someone can help me with this.

I've had my PC about 4 months now. After some initial teething problems it ran like a dream. Anyway about a week ago it started freezing. Basically it'll run (quite slowly) for about 5 minutes and then it'll just freeze.

I'm using Windows XP Pro as an OS, I have an 80Gb hard drive with 512mbDDR RAM and a AMD Athlon 64 chip in an AsRock K8UP motherboard. I use an external HD and an external USB Audiophile Soundcard (though I have tried booting up without these but get the same result). I'm pretty sure it's not a virus or spyware (I ran full scans in safe mode) and the only new software I have installed recently is Opera 8 (i was running Opera 7 before). The only odd thing is that it doesn't freeze when in safe mode.

Anyway, all this leads me to believe that there must be a hardware problem. Being more of a software-oriented kind of computer guy I have no idea about hardware! Can anyone help?

Sounds like either -

1) Something is dominating your clock cycle (although I doubt it with a 64bit chip)

2) There's a bas sector(s) / clusters on the disk

3) The PSU might be failing either to all compents or just the hard drive



Regards
_____
Meck

Thanks Meck.
I just wanted to confirm that it was hardware rather than software really and I think you've confirmed it for me!! I have a warranty (as I bought the Case/motherboard/chip/hd as one piece) so I'll have to email the people and have a bit of a scream until they sort it

Like the quote by the way - I'd love to ditch windows and use linux but the software compatability issue stops me!!!

Cheers
Yayo